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SERMON ON SLAVERY 



31 irinbitati0it 0f tl)c Slctltobist Ctolr, Soutb: 



HER POSITION STATED. 



PELIVEUKD IX TEMPKRAXCK IIAIX, IN KNOXA'ILLE, ON SABBATH, AU- 
GUST 9Tn, 1857. TO THE DELEGATES AND OTHERS IN ATTEND- 
ANCE AT THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONVENTION. 



. WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW, 

EDITOR OF THE <• KNOXVILLE WHIG." 




Jno^bille, fenn.: 



PRINTED BY KINSLOE & RICE, 

BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, GAY STREET. 

1857. 






CBmsponbtnct. 



As it is customary to send out a preface with a new publication, the Author 
of this discourse submits the following correspondence as explanatory of what 
may follow. 

Knoxville, Tenn., August 10th, 1S57. 
jRer. Wm. G. Brmonlow : — 

Dear Sir : Having listened, with peculiar interest, to the discourse on the subject of Slavert, 
delivered by you yesterday morning, and believing the dissemination of the views therein ex- 
pressed would be promotive of good, we, citizens of Alabama, respectfully solicit a copy of the 
game for publicatioa. Very truly, your obedient servants. 



WM. L. ALLEN. 
\Y. T. iMINTER. 
T. T. S. SANDFORD. 
C. K. FAILEY, M.D. 
WILLIAM WALKER. 



JOHN W. PITTS. 
B. T SHARP. 
WM. B. HARROLSON. 
JOHN C. M^NAB. 
THOS. J. FROW. 



Knoxville, Tenn., August Hth, 1857. 
Dr. Wm. G. Browtdow: — 

Dear Sir: We, the undersigned. Delegates to the Southern Commmercial Convention, who 
had the pleasure of listening to your Lecture on the 9th instant, in this city, beg to express the 
gratification it afforded us, and to request of you a copy for publication — with the view of their 
general distribution through the South. Allow us to express the hope that during the coming 
winter, you will repeat your Lecture in the principal cities and towns in the Southern States. 
We are, very respectfully, j'our obedient servants. 



Gov. W. D. MOSELEY, 1 Florida 

Gov. M. S PERRY, )■ ^ , " 

W. W. M'CALL. ) Delegation. 

W. H. BUSH, ) Alabama 

WM. H. KETCHUM, l * ='''»"^»- 

F. M. JOHNSON. i Delegation. 
M. J. CLAY, of Arkansas. 

C. D. PULLEN, \ Georgia 

M. U. RACHELS. j Delegation. 



A. S. MERRIMAN, of North Carolina. 
0. P. TEMPLE, ) Tennessee 

W.M. G. M'ADOO. / Delegation. 

JAMES B. M'UAE, of Mississippi. 
C. W. PHILLIPS, of Louisiana. 
G. L. BBUIST, 1 

R. S. M'CAUTS, 1 So. Ca. 

N. C. WHETSTONE, f Delegation. 

J. C. EDWARDS. J 



It E I> li ^2-. 



Knoxtillk, Tens., August 11th, 1857. 
GtrMenxen: — In reply to your favors of the 10th and 11th inst., I have to say that I comply 
with your request, and have handed over my manuscript to the printers — and they authorize 
mo to say that they will have you 2000 copies, done up in workman-like style, during the Ses. 
sion of this Commercial Convektion. 

Should it be desired, I will engage to deliver throughout the South, the coming winter, not 
thai Lecture, but one more appropriate, and prepared with more care. 

Very truly, yours, Ac, 

WM. G. BROWNLOW. 



v'l 



SERMON. 



Text. — "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own 
masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine 
be not blasphemed." — I Tim. vi : 1. 

Whoever reflects upon the nature af man, will find 
him to be almost entirely the creature of circumstances ; 
his habits and sentiments are, in a great measure, the 
growth of adventitious circumstances and causes — hence 
the endless variety and condition of our species. That 
race of men in our country known as Abolitionists, Free- 
Soilers, or as Black Repubhcans, look upon any deviation 
from the constant round in which tJiey have been spimiing 
out the thread of their existence, as a departure from. 
Nature's great system ; and from a known principle of our 
nature, the first impulse of these fanatics is to condemn. 
It is thus that a man born and reared in a Free State 
looks upon Slavery as unnatural and horrible, and in vi- 
olation of every law of justice and humanity ! And it 
is not unusual to hear bigots of this character, in their 
churches at the North, imploring the Divine wrath to let 
fall the consuming fires of heaven on that great Sodom 
and Gomorrah of the New World — all that vast extent 
of territory south of Mason & Dixon's Line, where this 
horrible practice prevails ! 

When an unprejudiced and candid mind examines into 



the past history of our race, and learns the fact which 
history develops, as the enquirer will, that a majority of 
mankind were slaves, he will be driven to the conclusion 
that the world, when first peopled by God himself, was 
not a world of freeman, but of slaves — the Declaration of 
American Independence to the contrary notwithstanding. 
Slavery was really established and sanctioned by Di- 
vine authority, among even God's chosen people — the fa- 
vored children of Israel. Abraham, the founder of this in- 
teresting nation, and the chosen servant of the Most High, 
was the owner of more slaves, at one time, than any cotton 
planter in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or Mississip- 
pi; or ainy sugar planter in Louisiana. That magnificent 
shrine, the gorgeous Temple of Solomon, commenced and 
completed under the pious promptings of religion and an- 
cient free-masonry, was reared alone by the hands of slaves ! 
Egypt's venerable and enduring pyramids were reared by 
the hands of slaves ! Involuntary servitude, reduced to 
a science, existed in ancient Assyria and Babylon. The 
ten tribes of Israel were carried off to Ass^^ria by Shal- 
manezer, and the two strong tribes of Judah were subse- 
quently carried in triumph by Nebuchadnezzar to end 
their days in Babylon as slaves, and to labor to adorn the 
city. Ancient Phoenicia and Carthage were literally over- 
run with slavery, because the slave population outnum- 
bered the free and the owners of slaves. The Greeks 
and Trojans, at the siege of Troj'', were attended with 
large numbers of their slaves. Athens, and Sparta, and 
Thebes — indeed, the whole Grecian and Roman worlds — 
had more slaves than freemen. And in those ages which 
succeeded the extinction of the Roman empire in the 
West, slaves were the most numerous class. Even in 
the days of civilization and Christian light which rev- 



olutionized governments, laboring serfs and abject slaves 
were distributed throughout Eastern Europe, and a por- 
tion of Western Asia — conclusively showing that slavery 
existed over these boundless regions. In China, the worst 
forms of slavery have existed since its earliest history. 
And when we turn to Africa, we find slavery, in all its 
most horrid forms, existing throughout its whole extent, 
the slaves outnumbering the freemen at least three to one. 
Looking then, to the whole world, we may with confi- 
dence assert, that slavery in its worst forms subdues by 
far the largest portion of the human race ! 

Now, the inquiry is, how has slavery risen and spread 
over our whole earth? We answer, hij the laws of war, 
the state of property, the feebleness of govermnenis, the 
thirst for bargain and sale, the increase of crime^ and last, 
but not least, bij and ivith the consent and approbation of 
Deitij! 

These remarks may suffice by way of an introduction, 
and they will serve to indicate the course we intend to 
pursue, if the announcement of the text has not already 
done that. Let as many servants as are under the yoJce 
count their oivn masters worthy of all ho)ior, &c. The 
word here rendered servants means slaves converted to 
the Christian faith; and the word yolce signifies the state 
of slavery in which Christ and the Apostles found the 
world involved when the Christian Church was first or- 
ganized. By the word rendered masters we are to un- 
derstand the heathen masters of those christianized slaves. 
Even these, in such circumstances, and under such domi- 
nation, are commanded to treat their masters with all 
honor and respect, that the name of God, by which they 
were called, and the doctrine of God, to wit : Christianity, 
which they had professed, might not be blasphemed — 



might not be evil spoken of in consequence of their im- 
proper conduct. Civil rights are never abolished by any 
communication from God's Spirit; and those fiery bigots 
at the North who propose to abolish the institution of 
slavery in this country, are not following the dictates of 
God's Spirit or law. The civil state in which a man was 
before his conversion is not altered by that conversion ; 
nor does the grace of God absolve him from any claims 
which the State, his neighbor, or lawful owner may have 
had on him. All these outward things continue unaltered; 
hence, if a man be under the sentence of death for mur- 
der, and God see fit to convert him, he is not released 
from suffering the extreme penalty of the law ! 

The Church of Christ, when originally constituted, 
claimed no right, as an ecclesiastical organization, to in- 
terfere with the civil government. This was the princi- 
ple upon which the Church was founded, as announced 
by its immortal Head. When Christ was doomed by a 
cruel Roman law to its most iornominious condemnation 
he did not so much as resist it, because it loas laiv, nor 
did he complain of it as oppressive. 

" Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and called Jesus, and 
said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews ? . . . Jesus answered. My 
kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would 
my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my 
kingdom not from hence ... To this end was I born, and for this cause 
came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." — John xviii : 
33-37. 

When Christ came into the world on the business of 
his mission, he found the Jewish people subject to the 
Roman kingdom ; and in no instance did he counsel the 
Jews to rebellion, or incite them to throw off the Roman 
yoke, as do the vagabond philanthropists of the North in 
reference to the existing laws of the United States upon 
the subject of slavery. Christ was, by lineal descent. 



" The King of the Jews," but he did not assert his tem- 
poral power, but actually refused to be crowned in that 
right. 

Under the Koman law, human liberty was held by no 
more certain tenure than the whim of the sovereign pow- 
er, protected by no definite constitution. Slavery con- 
stituted the most powerful and essential element of the 
government, and that slavery was of the most cruel char- 
acter, and gave the masters absolute discretion over the 
lives of the slaves. Notwithstanding all this, Christ did 
not make war upon the existing government, nor denounce 
the rulers for conferring such powers, although he looked 
upon cruel legislation in the light in which the character 
of his mission required. And although the Clmirch itself 
was not what it should have been, in no instance did 
Christ denounce that. The only denunciations the Sav- 
iour ever uttered were those against the doctors and law- 
yers, ministers and expounders of the Jewish code of ec- 
clesiastical law. For this he was crucified. And the 
Jewish gamblers who put him to death, divided out his 
garments, as you recollect, casting lots for them. And 
from that day to this, wherever you find a Jew, he is en- 
gaged in the clothing hisiness, either wholesaling or re- 
taihng " ready-made clothing !" 

But allow us to present the case of the Apostle Paul, 
as proof more palpable and overwhelming, on this very 
point. He had been falsely accused, cruelly imprisoned, 
and tyrannically arraigned; and that, too, before a hcen- 
tious governor, an unjust and dissipated ruler, and an un- 
principled infidel. The Roman law in force at the time 
arrested the freedom of speech, denied the rights of con- 
science, and even forbade the free expression of opinion 
in all matters conflicting with the provisions of the laws 



8^ 

of the Roman government. In his defense before Felix, 
Paul never so much as speaks of Roman law, though well 
acquainted with it, but "he reasoned o? rig/iteousmss, and 
Umi^erance, and the judgment to come'' Here was a 
suitable occasion to condemn the regulations and to ques- 
tion the authority of the villainous statutes of Rome; but 
instead of this, Paul plead his rights imder the unjust 
regulations of the law. He charged Felix with official 
delinquency, with personal crime, and as a man, he held 
him up to public scorn, and threatened him with the ven- 
geance of God ! He appealed to the lata, and justified 
himself hy the law. He claimed the rights of a ^'Bo- 
man citizeif — demanded the protection due to a Roman 
citizen — and he scorned to find fault with the law, cruel 
and unjust as he knew it to be. And the consequence 
was, that the licentious infidel who ruled, " trembled^ 

The views we have here presented are not at all new, 
but have been uniformly acted upon by evangelical Christ- 
ians, in all ages of the world. Since the days of St. 
Paul and Simon Peter, no reformer has appeared who was 
more violent than that great and good man, Martin Lu- 
ther. John Calvin possessed a revolutionary spirit — he 
fought everything he believed to be wrong — he was un- 
mitigated in his severity. Yet neither of these great 
men ever made war upon the existing laws of their re- 
spective countries. John Wesley was the great reform- 
er of the past century — he reformed the whole ecclesias- 
tical machinery of the modern Church of Christ; and his 
doctrines, and manner of conducting revivals, are leading 
elements of American Christianity. But Mr. Wesley 
never made war upon the English government, under 
which he lived and died. On the other hand, it is a mat- 
ter of serious complaint among sectarians not friendly to 



the spread of Methodism, that Wesley wrote elaborately 
against the war of the Revolution. Mr. Wesley believed 
it to be religiously his duty to sustain the government 
under the reign of George III. ; and had we been placed 
in his circumstances, we should have imitated his exam- 
ple. He was devoted to law and order, and he deemed 
it a religious duty to oppose all resistance to existing 
laws. In his troubles at Savannah, Georgia — like Paul 
before the licentious governor — he appealed to the laiv, and 
sought by every means in his power to be tried under 
the law, asking only the privilege of being heard in his 
own defense ! And it was, in all the instances we have 
mentioned, " that the name of God and his doctrine he 
not hlasphemed^'' to quote the expressive language of the 
text, that existing laws have been adhered to by the 
propagators of gospel truth. 

One word more as to Mr. Wesley : He is quoted by 
Abolition Methodists against the Methodists South. It 
is a matter of record, that when Mr. Wesley returned 
from Savannah to England, after a residence of two years, 
in his Report to the Board of Missions who sent him out, 
he advised the purchase of more negroes for the use of 
the American Missions, saying that a small experiment in 
that way had worked well — that while their labor would 
prove valuable, the Missionaries would be servicable to 
them in a spiritual point of view ! 

The essential principles of the great moral law deHver- 
ed to Moses by God himself, are set forth in what is call- 
ed the tenth commandment, in the 20th chapter of Exo- 
dus : " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, 
nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any 
thing that is thy neighbor's." Now, 'Cix^ only true inter- 



10 

pretation of this portion of the Word of God is, that the 
species of property mentioned are lawful, and that all 
men are forbid to disturb others in the lawful enjoyment 
of their property. " Man-servants and maid-servants" 
are distinctly consecrated as property^ and guaranteed to 
man for his exclusive benefit — proof irresistable that 
slavery was thus ordained by God himself. We have 
seen learned dissertations from the pens of Abolitionists, 
saying, that the term "servant," and not " slave," is used 
here. To this we reply, that both the Hebrew and Greek 
words translated "servant," mean also "slave," and are 
more frequently used in this sense than in the former. 
Besides, the Hebrew Scriptures teach us, that God 
especially authorized his peculiar people to purchase 
" BONDMEN FOR EVER ;" and if to be in bondage for ever 
does not constitute slavery^ we yield the point. 

The visionary notions of piety and philanthropy enter- 
tained by many men at the North, lead them to resist the 
Fugitive Slave Law of this government, and even to 
violate the tenth commandment, by stealing our " men- 
servants and maid-servants," and running them into what 
they call free territory. Nay, the villianous piety of 
some leads them to contribute Sharpens Rifles and Holy 
Bibles, to send the unciraumcised Philistines of New 
England into Kansas and Nebraska, to shoot down the 
Christian owners of slaves, and then to perform religious 
ceremonies over their dead bodies ! Clergymen lay aside 
their Bibles at the North, and females, as in the case of 
that model beauty, Harriet Beeelier Stowe, unsex them- 
selves to carry on this horrid and slanderous warfare 
against slaveholders of the South ! And English travel- 
ers, steeped to the nose and chin in prejudices against 
this government and our institutions, have written books 



11 

upon the subject. The Halls, Hamilton^, Trollopes, and 
Miss Martineaus, et ed omne genus, all have misrepre- 
sented us ! These English writers all denounce slavery 
and eulogize Benwcracy ; as if an Englishman could be 
a Democrat in the modern, vulgar sense of the term, and 
be a consistent man ! 

But we do not propose, in this brief discourse, to enter 
into any defense of the African slave trade. Although 
the evils of it are greatly exaggerated, its evils and cruel- 
ties, its barbarities, are not justified by the most ultra 
slaveholders of this age. The vile traffic was abohshed by 
the United States, even before the British Parliament pro- 
hibited it. All the powers in the world have subsequent- 
ly prohibited this trade — some of the more influential and 
powerful of them declaring it inracy, and covering the 
African seas with armed vessels to prevent it ! 

This trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings of 
mankind, dates its origin as far back as the year 1442. — 
Antony Gonzales, a Portuguese mariner, while exploring 
the coast of Africa, was the first to steal some Moors, and 
was subsequently forced by Prince Henry of Portugal to 
carry them back to Africa. In the year 1502, the Span- 
iards began to steal negroes, and employ them in the mines 
of Hispanoila, Cuba, and Jamaica. In 1517, the Empe- 
ror Charles Y. granted a patent to certain privileged per- 
sons, to steal exclusively a supply of 4,000 negroes annu- 
ally for these islands ! 

African slaves were first imported into America in 1620, 
a century after their introduction into the West Indies. — 
The first cargo, of twenty Africans, by a Dutch vessel, 
was brought up the James River, into Virginia, and sold 
out as slaves. England then being the most commercial 
of European nations, engrossed the trade ; and from 1680 



*2 

to 1780, there were imported into the British Possessions 
alone, two millions of slaves — making an average annual 
importation of more than 20,000 ! And the annual im- 
portation into America has transcended 50,000 ! The 
States of this Union, north of Mason and Dixon's Line, 
commonly called the New England States, were never, to 
any great extent, daveholding ; their virtuous and pious 
minds were chiefly exercised in slave-stealing and slave- 
selUng ! To Old England our New England States owe 
their knowledge of the art of slave-stealing ; and to New 
England these Southern States are wholly indebted for 
their slaves. They stole the African from his native land, 
and sold him into bondage for the sake of gain. They 
kept but a few of their captives among themselves, be- 
cause it was not profitable to use negro labor in the cold 
and sterile regions of New England. And when they en- 
acted laws in the New England States abolishing slavery, 
they brought their negroes into the South and sold them 
before their laws could go into operation ! This is the true 
history of slavery in New England. They stole and sold 
property which it was not profitable to keep, and for which 
they now refuse all warranty. And what few American 
ships are in the trade now, at the peril of piracy, are New 
England ships. 

The pious and religious portion of New England Aboli- 
tionists, we take it, are the better portion, and in these we 
have no sort of confidence. Take, for example, the case 
of that great man, and powerful pulpit orator, Stephen 
Olin, who came into Georgia, and was introduced into the 
ministry by Bishop Andrew and his friends, and by this 
means married a lady owning a number of slaves. He 
sold them all for the money, pocketed the money, and re- 
turned to his congenial North ; and when Bishop Andrew 



13 

was arraigned before the General Conference of 1844, 
because he had married a widow lady owning a few slaves, 
this man Olin appeared on the floor, and spoke and voted 
against th^ Bishop ! Dr. Olin had washed his hands of 
the sin of slavery— had his money out at interest— and 
he was ready to plead for the rights of the poor African ! 
May we not exclaim, " Lord ! what is man ?" 

We are acquainted with many of the Abolitionists of 
the North connected with the Methodist Church ; and al- 
though we suppose that they are about as good as the 
Abolitionists of other denominations we have no confidence 
in them. The most of them would enter their fine churches 
on the Sabbath, preach for hours against the sin of slave- 
ry, shed their tears over the oppressions of the "servile 
progeny of Ham," in these Southern States ; and on the 
next day, in a purely business transaction, behind a coun- 
ter, or in the settlement of an account, cheat a Southern 
slave out of the 2^ewte?' that ornaments the head of his 



cane 



We have no confidence in either the Politician or the 
Dlvins at the North, engaged in the villainous agitation of 
the slavery question. There are good, reliable, and con- 
servative men at the North, and in the South, who came 
from the North, but they are not among these graceless 
agitators. And if we find any of them in Heaven, where 
we expect to go after death, we shall conclude they have 
got in by practicing a fraud upon the door-keeper ! 

There is much in the political papers of our country 
calculated, if not intended, to fan a flame of intense war- 
fare upon the subject of slavery, which can result in no 
possible good to any one. Those politicians who are ex- 
citing the whole country, and fanning society into a livid 
consuming flame, particularly at the North, have no sym- 



u 

pathies for the black man, and care nothing for his com- 
fort. They only seek their own glory. This political dis- 
quiet and commotion is giving birth to new and loftier 
schemes of agitation and disunion, among the vile Aboli- 
tionists of the country, and to bold and hazardous enter- 
prises in the States and Territories. And many of our 
Southern altars smoke with the vile incense of Abolition- 
ism. We have scores of Abolitionists in the South, in 
disguise — designing men — some filling our pulpits — some 
occupying high positions in our colleges— some editing 
pohtical and religious papers— s^me selling goods— and 
some following one calling aad some another, who, though 
among us, are not of us, Southern men may rest assured ! 
We endorse, without reserve, that much-abused senti- 
ment of a distinguished South Carolina statesmen, now 
no more, that "slavery is the cormer-stone of our republi- 
can edifice;" while we repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, 
that much lauded, but nowhere-accredited dogma of Mr. 
Jefferson, that '' all men are born equal." God never in- 
tended to make the huicher a judge, nor the haJcer a presi- 
dent, but to protect thena aceording to their claims as 
butcher and baker. Pope has beautifully expressed this 
sentiment, where he has said : 

" Order is heaven's first law, and this eonfessed, 
Some are, and must be, greater tSvan the rest." 

We have gone among the free negroes at the North — 
we have visited their miserable dwellings in Philadelphia, 
New York, Boston, and other points; and, in every in- 
stance, we have found them more miserable and destitute, 
as a whole, than the slave population of the South. In 
our Southern States, where negroes have been set at lib- 
erty, in nine cases out of ten their conditions have been 
made worse ; while the most wretched, indolent, immoral, 



16 

and dishonest class of persons to be found in the South- 
ern States, ?iVQ free persons of color. 

The freedom of negroes in even the Northern States, 
is, in all respects, only an empty name. The citizen negro 
does not vote, and takes good care not to do so. The law 
does not interdict him this privilege, but if he attempt to 
avail himelf of the privilege, he is apprehensive of '• apostolic 
blows and kicks," which the pious Abolitionists will ad- 
minister to him. All the social advantages, all the respect- 
able employments, all the honors, and even the pleasures 
of life, are denied the free negroes of the North, by citi- 
zens full of sympathy for the down-trodden African ! The 
negro cannot get into an omnibus, cannot enter a bar-room 
frequented by whites, nor a church, nor a theatre ; nor 
can he enter the cabin of a steamboat, in one of the North- 
ern rivers or lakes, or enter a first class passenger car on 
one of their railroads. They are not suffered to enter a 
stage-coach with whites, but are forced upon the deck, 
whether it shall rain or s-hine — whether it be hot or cold. 
Industry is closed to them, and they are forced to live 
as servants in hotels, or adopt the profession of barber, or 
boot-black, or open oysters in saloons, or sell villainous 
liquors to the lower classes of German and Irish emi- 
grants, who throng our large cities and towns. The ne- 
groes even have their own st/i^eets, and their own low-down 
kennels ; they have their hospitals, their churches, their 
cars, upon which are written in large letters, " FOR COL- 
ORED PEOPLE !" Finally, they are forced to have their 
own grave-yards— i\\.Q yellow remains of Northern Aboli- 
tionists, and pious white men, refusing to mingle with the 
bleeching bones of the dead negro ! While, in the South, 
they crowd the galleries and back seats in our churches, 
travel in our passenger cars, and even loan tJieir money 



16 

to our white men at interest ! Such is an outline of the 
contrast between free negroes at the North, and slaves at 
the South. 

Let us turn again to the Holy Scriptures, and see wheth- 
er or not they sustain or condemn the institution of slave- 
ry. The opposers of slavery profess to be governed alone 
by the teachings of the Bible, in their war upon this in- 
stitution. It IS vain to look to Christ or any of his Apos- 
tles to justify the blasphemous perversions of the word 
of God, continually paraded before the world by these 
graceless agitators. Although slavely in its most revolt- 
ing forms was everywhere visible around them, no vision- 
ary notions of piety or schemes of philanthropy ever tempt- 
ed either Christ or one of his Apostles to gainsay the law, 
even to mitigate the cruel severity of the slavery system 
then existing. On the contrary, finding slavery estaUisJv- 
ed hy law, as well as an inevikible and necessary conse- 
quence, growing out of the condition of human society, 
their efforts were to sustain the institution. Hence St. 
Paul actually apprehended a ''fugitive slaved' and sent 
him back to his lawful owner and earthly master ! 

Having already appealed to the authority of the Old 
Testament Scriptures, we turn to that of the New, where 
we learn that slavery existed in the earliest days of the 
Christian Church, and that both masters and slaves were 
members of the same Christian congregations. Slavery 
was an institution of the State in the Roman empire, as 
it is in the Southern States of this confederacy, and the 
Apostles did not feel at liberty to denounce it, if, indeed, 
they felt the least opposition to it— a thing we deny. 

But, before we appeal to the irresistable authority of 
the New Testament, we will submit a few only of a great 
many passages from the Old Testament— not having quo- 



17 
ted as extensively as may hav€ been deemed necessary : 

"And he said, I am Abraham's servant." — Gen. xxiv: 34. 

" And there was of the house of Saul a servant, whose name was Ziba ; and 
when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba ? 
And he said, Tkt/ servant, is A«." — 2 Sam. ix: 2. 

•' Then the king called to Ziba, SnuV s servant, and said unto him, I have given 
unto thy master's son all that pertained to Saul, and to all his house." — Verse 
9th. 

" Thou, therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, 
and thou shall bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat, 
&c. Now Ziba has fifteen sons aud twenty sekv.\nts^" — Verse 10th. 

" I got my servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house ; also, I 
had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusa- 
lem before me." — Eccles. ii : 7. 

"And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou? And she said, I 
flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. — Gen. rvi: 8. 

" And the Angel of the Lord said unto her. Return to thy mistress, and submit 
thyself to her hands."— Verse 9th. 

The only comments we have to offer upon these passa- 
ges are, first, one individual acknowledges himself the 
owner of twenty slaves ! Another was raising slaves, and 
having them born in his house! ! And last, but not least, 
the angel of God ordered the fugitive slave to return to 
her lawful owner ! ! High authority, this, for apprehend- 
ing runaway slaves. 

But if we were to tell a Northern Abolitionist, that the 
Angel of God was acting in the capacity of a United States 
Marshall, and aided in arresting '^fugitive slave, he would 
think us crazy ! 

In reference to bad servants, we read in Prov. xxix : 
19— 

" A servant will not be corrected by words ; for though be understand, he will 
not answer." 

The Scriptures look to the correction of servants, and 
really enjoin it, as they do in the case of children. We 
esteem it the duty of Christian masters to feed and clothe 
well, and in case of disobedience to whip well. 

In the book of Joel iii: 8, the slave trade is recognized 
as of Divine authority : 



18 

"And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the land of the children 
of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to the people far off; FOR 
THE LORD HATH SPOKEN IT !" 

" Let every man abide in the same calling ■wherein he was called. Art thou 
called, being a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, 
use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's 
freemen; likewise also that he is called, being free, is Christ's servant." — 1 
Cor. vii: 20-22. 

" Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters accordivg to the flesh, 
with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with 
eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of 
God from the heart. With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to 
men : knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he 
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same 
things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in 
heaven: neither is there respect of persons with him." — Eph. vi: 5-9. 

^'Servants, obey in all things your masters according to thefte^h : not with eye- 
service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And what- 
soever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men : knowing that 
of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the 
Lord Christ.''— Col. iii: 22-25. 

" blasters, give unto i/our servants that which is just and equal : knowing that 
ye also have a Master in heaven." — Col. iv: 1. 

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their ozvn masters worthy of 
all honor, that the name of God and his doctrines be not blasphemed. And 
that they have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are 
brethren; but rather to do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, 
partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." — 1 Tim. vi: 1, 2. 

*' Exhort servants to be obedient unto their ou-fi masters, and to please them 
well in all things; not answering again; nor purloining, but showing all good 
fidelity ; thet they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour and all things." 
—Titus ii : 9, 10. 

^'Servants, be subject to your viasters vrith all fear; not only to the good 
and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a mau for 
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully." — 1 Peter ii: 18, 
19. 

" We have but a single word of comment to offer upon 
these passages of Scripture. The original words used by 
the Greek writers, both sacred and profane, to express 
slave ; the most abject condition of slavery ; to express 
the absolute owner of a slave, and the absolute control of 
a slave, are the strongest that the language affords, and 
are used in the passage here quoted. If the apostles un- 
derstood the common use of words, and desire to convey 
these ideas, and to recognize the relations of master and 
servant, they would naturally enough, employ the very 
words used. To say that they did not know the primary 



19 

meaning and usus loquendi of the original words, is pay- 
ing tliem a compliment we wish not to participate in ! — 
And to show we are not singular in our views of the mean- 
ing expressed in the passages quoted, showing that they 
express in one case slaves, and in the other masters or 
owners, actually holding them as property, under the sanc- 
tion of the laws of the State, we quote from the follow- 
ing authorities : 

That great commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, on 1 Cor. 
vii: 21, says: 

" Art thou converted to Christ while thou art a slave — the property of an- 
other person, and bought with his money? Care not for it." 

The learned Dr. Neander, in his work entitled " Plant- 
ing and training the Church," in referring to Onesimiis, 
mentioned in the epistle to Philemon, says of him : 

" It does not appear to be at all surprising that a runaivay slave should be- 
take himself at once to Rome." 

To the foregoing might be added other authorities of 
equal weight and importance. 

It is a well-known historical fact, that slaveholders were 
admitted into the Apostolic Churches; nor Avould this as- 
sumed position of the advocates of slavery be at all de- 
nied by any intelligent and well-read man at the North, 
but for the fact that they think such an admission would 
decide the question against Abolitionists. We have given 
much attention to this subject within ten years past, and 
we feel no sort of delicacy in expressing our views and 
convictions, as revolting as they may be to Northern men 
and Free-soilers, even among us. We believe the primi- 
tive Christians held slaves in bondage, and that the Apos- 
tles favored slavery, by admitting slaveholders into the 
Church, and by promoting them to official stations in the 



20 

Church. And why do we believe this ? Because we are 
sustained in these positions by uninterrupted historical 
testimony ! 

Well, for the information of Abolitionists and other 
anti-slavery men dispersed throughout the South, we as- 
sume that the fact of the Apostles admitting into Church- 
fellow^ship slaveholders, and promoting them to positions ; 
of honor and trust, shows that the simple relation of mas- 
ter and slave was no bar to Church-membership. Mas- 
ters and slaves, in the days of the Apostles, were admitted 
into the Church as brethren; they partook in common of 
the benefits of the Church; they held to the same relig- j 
ious principles ; they squared their lives by the same rule 
of conduct; acknowledged the same obligations one to 
another^ and worshipped at the same altar. This was 
true of tJie first and succeeding centuries, when the rela- 
tions of master and slave, and the practice of the Church 
in reference thereto, were very much like they are in the 
Southern States of our Union at present. But to the 
proof that slaveholders were admitted into the Apostolic 
Churches : 

1. Historians all agree that slavery existed, and was 
general throughout the Roman empire, at the time the 
Apostolic Churches were instituted. We have at our 
command the authorities to prove this, but to quote from 
them would swell this discourse beyond what we have 
intended. We will cite the authorities only ; and anti- 
slavery men who deny our position can examine our au- 
thorities. See Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Boman 
empire," vol. i. See " Inquiry into Roman Slavery, by 
Wm. Blair," Edinburgh edition of 1833. See vol. iv. of 
"Lardner's Works," page 213. See vol. i. of "Dr. Rob- 
ertson's Works," London edition. Other authorities 



21 

might be given, but these are sufficient, as they show that 
slavery was a civil institution of the State; that the 
Roman laws regarded slaves as 'property, at the disposal 
of their masters; that these slaves, whether white or col- 
ored, had no civil existence or rights, and contended for 
none; and that there were three slaves to one eiiizen — 
showing something of a similarity between the Roman em- 
pire and our Southern States ! Gibbon says that slavery 
existed in "every province and every family," and that 
they were bought and sold according to their capacities 
for usefulness, and the demand for labor — selling at hund- 
reds of dollars, and from that down to the price of a beast 
of burden ! Now, it is notorious that the gospel made 
considerable progress among the citizens of the Roman 
empire; and, as nearly every ftimily owned slaves, it is 
certain that slaveholders were converted and admitted 
into the Church. It will not do to say Irhat the poor, in_ 
eluding the slaves, were alone converted to God, because 
the Apostles make frequent allusions to the receiving into 
the Church of intelligent, learned, and opulent persons. 
The learned Dr. Mosheim, in his Church History, vol. i., 
relating to the Jirst three centuries, settles this question 
most effectually. He says : 

" The Apostles, in their writings, prescribe rules for the conduct of the rich 
as well as the poor, for masters as well as servants — a convincing proof that 
among the members of the Church planted by them were to be found persona 
of opulence and masters of families. St. Paul and St. Peter admonished 
Christian women not to study the adorning of themselves with pearls, with 
gold and silver, or costly array. 1 Tim. ii: 9, — 1 Peter iii: 3. It is, therefore, 
plain that there must have been women possessed of wealth adequate to the 
purchase of bodily ornaments of great price. From 1 Tim. vi : 20, and Col. 
ii: 8, it is manifest that among the first converts to Christianity there were 
men of learning and philosophers ; for, if the wise and the learned had unan- 
imously rejected the Christian religion, what occasion could there have been 
for this caution. 1 Cor. i: 26, unquestionably carries with it the plainest in- 
timation that persons of rank or power were not Avholly wanting in that assem- 
bly. Indeed, lists of the names of the various illustrious persons who embrac- 
ed Christianity, in its weak and infantile state, are given by Blondel, p. 235 
de Episcopis et Presbyteris; also by Wetstein, in his Preface "to Origen'a Dia. 
Con. Mar., p. 18." 



22 

Having considered this text in the light of truth, and 
having demonstrated, most clearly, as we think, that God 
intended the relation of master and slave to exist, we 
will avail ourselves of the advantages of this occasion, to 
vindicate the Methodist Church, South, so far as her 
position upon the slavery question is concerned. We do 
not pretend to have given the precise views of the South- 
ern Methodist Church, touching the moral character of 
Slavery, in this discourse. By her separate organization 
in 1844, on account of the slavery agitation — by her 
teaching and discipline, she has expressed her approba- 
tion of the Institution, as it exists in the Southern States. 
Not only so, but in her separate Southern organization, 
she has enacted laws and adopted regulations, touching 
the duties of masters and slaves, and the rights of the 
South, in connection with slavery, so as to have been 
styled by the entif e North, an infamous p^o-slavery church I 
Slavery is intimatel}^ interwoven, with the organization 
of the Methodist Church, South — it has penetrated all 
departments of her organization, and in consequence there- 
of, has armed against herself the whole power of the 
North. Indeed, the Free-Soilers and Abolitionists of 
this country, in assailing the Southern Methodist Church, 
consider they are assailing the institution of slavery. 

The General Assembly of the New School Presbyterian 
Church, at its recent Session in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 
consequence of the anti-slavery sentiments of the North- 
ern portion of their body, and their continued agitation 
of the vexed question, resolved upon a separation— that 
is, the Southern representatives did — and they appointed 
the 27th of this month, as the time, and Washington 
city as the place for organizing a Southern General As- 
sembly. Their brethren at Washington, not being alto- 



23 

gether pleased with the idea of a pro-slavery convention 
there, have objected — and hence their meeting is to take 
place at Richmond, the capitol of the Old Dominion. 

In the Pre-^hyUrian Witness, for July 14, 1857, and 
from the pen of the Rev. F. A. Ross, one of the leading 
members from the South, who led off in this work of 
separation, appears, in glorification of this movement, 
greatly disparaging other sects, and actually misrepresen- 
ting the position of the Methodist Church, South, which 
led off in this work, thirteen years in advance of Mr. 
Ross's church. Speaking of the present position of the 
Southern wing of the New School Church, he says : 

"We, indeed, hold now the only defined ground, on the slavery question, in 
the United States or the world. " Ordained of God"— for its day of good, to 
master, and slave, and the State. There it is — clear, intelligible, common sense, 
Bible truth. 

No other body of men have given us any position at all. 

The Methodists split, and gave us nothing. 

The Baptists split, and gave us nothing. 

The Episcopalians hold together, and give us nothing. 

The Old School hold together, and give us nothing." 

Mr. Ross has been invited by his friends here, to de- 
liver his address on Slavery, during i\\Q Session of the 
'' Southern Comjiercial Convention" which convenes in 
this city to-morrow, and it is fair to presume, he will com- 
ply with this request. As he will in all probabihty, make 
this same statement, we have deemed it proper to set him 
right on this vital point of difference between us, and 
publicly to vindicate the truth of history. 

It is a very remarkable statement, that neither the 
Methodists, Baptists, Episcopahens, nor Old School Pres- 
byterians, " have any defined ground on the slavery 
question," or have given the South " any position at all," 
on this great issue ! True, these denominations have 
been in conflict with the North, for more than twenty 
years, on the moral character of slavery, and the fiercely 



2^ 

contested question of Southern Rights, but none of them 
have been able to settle down upon any '^ defined ground," 
until the light of the brilliant action of twe)ity-nx men, 
representing about tv)o hundred Preachers, and ^tiW few- 
er congregations, dawned upon the world at Cleveland, in 
May last ! 

It will not be expected of us, that we will enter into a 
defense of others, but as he has singled out the Method- 
ists, we have a right to defend them against this wilful at- 
tempt at disparagment. " The Methodists split, and gave 
us nothing," — that is in the way of a " defined ground," or 
of a "position," on the great slavery issue of the nine- 
teenth century! We repeat, this is a singular statement- 

Without doing the least injustice to any other body of 
Southern Christians, we may say, the Methodists have 
not only given a " defined ground" upon which they proud- 
ly stand, upon the slavery question, but have entirely 
separated from the North. The Methodists of the South, 
have been in conflict with the North for at least a quarter 
of a centur}^, and are now denounced as a pro-slavery 
church, dealing in human flesh, for the sake of gain ! 

In 1844, at the General Conference held in New York, 
a " Plan of Separation" was agreed upon, and Commission- 
ers were subsequently appointed to adjust and settle all 
matters pertaining to the division of the Church property 
and funds. And having provided for the organization 
of a Southern General Conference in the slave-holding 
States, before leaving New York, a Convention was 
agreed upon, to be held in Louisville, Kentucky, to com- 
mence the 1st of May, 1845 — comj^osed of delegates 
from the several Annual Conferences, South. These 
Annual Conferences were instructed, or rather their dele- 
gates, as to the points on which they were to act — and 



25 

their contemplated action was to conform to the opinions 
and wishes of the mennher'sliifp within tlieir several Con- 
fereiwe hounds — all of which was rigidly carried out. The 
Louisville Convention met, ably and fully attended, and 
resolved itself into a "• separate and distinct ecclesiastical 
connection" — leaving our Ministers and Members, of every 
grade and office at liberty to adhere North or South. 

The question of a separation was now considered as 
finally settled. Not so, however, the leading Church 
papers of the North — Methodists, Baptists, and Presby- 
terians, set themselves diligently to work to prove to the 
world, that this Southern Methodist organization was an 
actual 'sec€Ssio)i^ and a seism of the worst sort. These 
Northern papers came down upon this Southern organiza- 
tion, as a pro-slavery Church, the sole object of which 
was, to strengthen slavery in the South, and to encourage 
and protect slaveholding in the Ministry. Even Dr. 
Ross, here in the South — not then surrounded by the 
slavery influences which now surround him in Alabama, 
came down upon our •' defined ground,'' in sledge-hammer 
style, in his *' Calvinistic Magazine" — he denied us the 
credit then, as he does now, of taking a " position" in 
favor of the South, and attributed our separation to the 
defects in a rickety system of Church Goveimmeni I 
Without pausing to speak of his consistency, we may be 
permitted to speak of his want of charity, for a sister 
Church, struggling against a God-forsaken combination of 
Free-soilers, Black Republicans, and Abolitionists. 

We resided in the same town of Kingsport, in East 
Tennessee, some twenty years ago, with Doct. Ross, and 
\iQ personcdly knew him to have been an Emancipation- 
ist at that time. He actually set fifteen or twenty slaves 
free — and was accustomed to preach against the institution 



26 

of slavery ! We will not now pause to enquire why this 
change has " come o'er the spirit of his dreams !" Suffice 
it to say, that he is the Pastor of a congregation of Ala- 
bama slave holders, and has no visible means of support, 
aside from his salary ! 

In those day, when Dr. Ross was notoriously an eman- 
cipationist, he wrete to Kentucky, from Kingsport, and 
from that letter we gather the following extract, copied 
into the Yelloio Springs {Ohio) Preshjterian, from the 
New Yorh Indejjendent — in both of which Journals we 
have seen it : 

" In Kentucky you are in advance of us in preparation for measures of eman- 
cipation. But if we were not joined politically to West Tennessee, we of 
East Tennessee wotild be moving even before you of Kentucky on this subject. 
Our soundest politicians would at once have their deliberations drawn to in- 
cipient measures, were they not restrained by our connection with the other part of 
(he State." 

But, with characteristic hypocrisy and dishonesty, the 
Northern Methodist Church, repudiated the " Plan of 
Separation," and the adjustment in reference to the church 
property and funds, and the Southern Commissionners 
instituted legal proceedings against them, in the United 
States courts, at Cincinnati, and New York, where the 
Church property was located. This suit cost the Church, 
South, over sixteen thousand dollars, but we recovered 
near a half million of dollars ! The Lawyers who con- 
ducted the suit on behalf of the South, were Lord, of 
New York, Webster, of Massachusetts, Reverdy Johnson, 
of Maryland, Stansbury and Corwin, of Ohio, and Bryant, 
of Tennessee. 

With the property and funds recovered, our Church 
has established a Mammoth Book Concern, or Publishing 
House, at Nashville, which is now in successful operation. 
We have organized a " Missionary Society of the Metho- 
dist Church, South," which is now contributing as much 



27 

money for Missionary purposes, as the entire Church did 
before the separation. We have our " Tract Society of 
the Methodist Church, South," doing an extensive, and 
truly good work. We have our " Sunday School Union, 
of the Methodist Church, South," withits periodical, the 
'' Visitor," doing an extensive, and a glorious work. We 
have our seven " Ghristian Advocates-^'' weekly organs of 
the General Conference, with their one hundred tlwumnd 
sid)-scribers, doing battle for the interests of the South, 
and making their marks most eifectually. These large and 
telling sheets, are published in Richmond, Charleston, 
Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Texas ! 
And still, strange to relate, '' the Methodists split, and 
gave the South nothing," not even a '-'defined ground!" 
on the slavery question ! 

What next? We have twenty -three Anmial Confer- 
ttiees, in our division of the Church — 2200 Traveling 
Ministers, and six Bishops, who travel extensively, and 
superintend the entire work, from the Potomac to Cah- 
fornia. Beside these we have four thousand seven hun- 
dred Loccd Preachers, who, though not in the regular 
work, as Pastors, preach a great deal, and embody a great 
amount of talents. Within the bounds of these 23 Con- 
ferences, we have a membership of SIX HUNDRED 
AND THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED ! 
Out of this number, ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN- 
TY-THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND 
NINETY-FIVE, are colored persons, and slaves at that, 
with but very few exceptions. We hazard nothing in 
saying that the Methodist Church, South, is doing more, 
and expending more money and labor to improve the 
spiritual condition of the slaves, than all other denomina- 
tions within the same bounds. And we are certain that 



28 

our church is doing more for the souls and bodies of the 
slaves, than all the Wendell Philipses, Joshua Giddingses, 
Beechers, Garrisons, Parkers, and other unprincipled 
freedom shriekers, and false-hearted Abolitionists, now 
out of Hell! And still. Dr. Ross says, the Southern 
Methodists have no " defined ground on the slavery ques- 
tion." It is hoped if he deliver an address here the in- 
coming week, he will explain to us what a " defined 
ground" is, for surely it needs explanation ! 

What next? Let us see what Dr. Ross's Church has 
done for the South, and what its capacUy is to do, as it 
evidently now has the will. The New School Presby- 
terian Church, in the IT^iited States, entire, has fifteen 

HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE MINISTERS, and ONE HUNDRED AND 

THIRTY-NINE THOUSAND MEMBERS, morc than tlirce-fourtlis of 
xvhom are North, leaving the remainder almost powerless 
for good in the South. 

We are pleased to seethe Southern portion of the New 
School Presbyterian Church, take the stand they have 
upon this question— they occupy "defined ground" now, 
though they have been a long time finding it— they have 
been tliirteen years in the rear of our Church. They have 
a ri-ht to claim the promise of God, under that clause in 
the Divine Constitution which says, "the last shall be 
first'' Until the action of the Southern wing of this 
Church at Cleveland, her Ministers and members were 
looked upon as occupying equivocal gvom^d. on the slavery 
question. Within the past year, the Editor of the Pre^ 
hyterian Witness acknowledged that he had not been suffi- 
ciently Southern in his views and teachings, and announ- 
ced his determination to take more " defined ground" upon 
the great issue between the North and the South ! More 
recently, the " Witness' has urged as an objection to the 



29 

New School Theological Seminary at jMaryville, that too 
many of its graduates have gone forth with " a ivarm mde 
for Abolitionism' — charging in substance, that such senti- 
ment were there inculcated. 

When we came to this city to reside, eight years ago, 
we found a Northern Abolitionist Pastor of the New 
School Church here. His gold spectacles, his penetrating 
mink-eye, and a sharp face like an oak leaf coming at you 
edge-wise, and his singular carriage on our streets, are 
all plain before us yet ! In Rogersville, the New School 
Church has been served with an avowed Abolition Pastor, 
and a Northern man, for the last six or eight years — a 
man who had been marched out of North Carolina, to 
quick time, for his anti-slavery sentiments — for having his 
"ground" upon the slavery question too well defined as 
we have been told by a Presbyterian minister! He has 
recently had a prominent member of his Church before 
his congregation, for daring to chastise a villainous run- 
away negro, and it has resulted in his being removed from 
his Pastoral charge. But it has not stopped there. The 
retired Pastor is showing up the member and congregation, 
in Northern Abohtion papers, for inhuman treatment of a 
slave ! That Church has other men in East Tennessee, 
and in other Southern States, in pulpits, at the head of 
Schools and Academies, and in the practice of Medicine, 
in whose friendship to the " peculiar institution of the 
South," we have no more confidence than we have in the 
august assemblage that nominated Fremont for the Presi- 
dency ! Yes, there are scores of designing men in the 
South — some filling pulpits, some practicing Medicine, 
and others occupying high positions in Colleges, who 
secretly fight under the piratical fl:ig of Black Republican- 
ism, and whose infernal altars smoke with the incense of 
Northern fanaticism ! 



1/ 



30 

This anti-slavery Preacher. Mr. Sawyer, has been the 
pastor of the New School Presbyterian Church, at Rogers- 
ville, only 75 miles east of here, for the last several years. 
A worthy gentleman in his church, daring to sell a villain- 
ous negro — that negro running away, has been apprehend- 
ed, and severely chastised, as he deserved to be, and the 
gentleman member of the Church, selling him, has been 
discussed before the Church "Session." Since then, the 
retired Pastor has issued a large hand-bill in which he 
assumes : 

" It is all a delusion and a lie, that a man has a right to do what he pleases 
■with his property, regardless of the rights and feelings of others !" 

And again, speaking of the chastisement of this slave, 
this circular says : 

*' Many regarded it as an insult to the citizens of our town, to bring MUsi!:- 
sippi brutalities so close to our doors .'" 

The Yellow Springs (Ohio) Preshi/terian^ for July 2nd. 
alluding to this subject says : 

"But our story is not ended. Six weeks ago this same pastor wrote to -x 
friend in this city, " There is not one pro-slavery man in Holstou Presbytery. 
We arc all opposed to tint system of slavei-y. But still we do not like the in- 
terference of the Home Missionary Society with this matter." Now he writes. 
" I have seen the dark side of slaverj'. I must leave. Find me a parish in 
any free state from JIaine to Kansas." 

Here Mr. Sawyer even represents every Minister in 
the Holston Presbytery as " opposed to the system of 
slavery !" This startled us, but upon looking over the 
proceedings of the Presbytery, held only in last month, 
certified to by this retired Pastor, who acted as Secretary. 
we find, among other propositions adopted, these : 

" 1. Slavery is not necassarilj' sinful, or sin per se. 

2. It is not a permanent or desirable Institution and is to be continued uo 
longer than the good of the master and slave requires it. 

.3. The gospel is the remedy for it, and christians should strive for its removal 
in the spirit of the gospel.'' 



31 

And yet, strange to say, this is the Church proposing 
a Southern organization ! Here is a " defined ground," 
with a vengeance ! 

In conclusion, the charge is that the Methodists have 
given the South no position at all, on the great slavery 
question. Great men will differ. A distinguished States- 
man, and patriot, now no more, dehvered a- speech in the 
United States Senate, on the 4th of March, 1850, and it 
was his dying speech. He was posted on the slavery 
question in all its bearings, and watched the movements 
of jxarties with sleepless vigilance. Speaking of the effect 
of the Abolition agitation upon the religious cords which 
assisted in holding the Union together, he said : 

" The first of these cords which snapped under its explosive force (Aboli- 
tionism) Tvas that of the powerful Methodist Episcopal Church. The numer- 
ous and strong ties which held it together are all broke, and its unity goue.'^ 

These are among the dying words of that great and 
towering intellect, and tried patriot, John C. Calhoun, 
who literally died in Southern hayiiess, battling for our 
rights. A man of unblemished private character, and a 
firm believer in the truths of the Bible, we hope he has 
found a calm and welcome retreat from the cares and 
anxieties of political warfare, in the paradise of God ! 
For a man who lived the virtuous, moral, and upright life 
he did, deserves a home in heaven ! 



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